Mike McCoy, reviewing Sunday's loss, touched on a new and spooky sight: the first of the night's three interceptions thrown by Philip Rivers.

Rivers' third-and-10 heave into double coverage, which set up Oakland's first drive at San Diego's 44, resembled some of Rivers' bad throws in recent seasons -- but under first-year head coach McCoy, the 10th-year quarterback hadn't been serving such gifts.

"Philip hasn't made that decision all year long," McCoy said. "The five games we've played he has not thrown up a ball like that."

McCoy, for what it's worth, didn't equate the deep throw to a punt. The Chargers had no one in position to tackle safety Usama Young after he caught the floater several yards behind receiver Eddie Royal.

Young's 23-yard return put Oakland's offense on a short field, and the Raiders capitalized with a 44-yard scoring pass on the next play.

Of course, it's possible Oakland's same long pass would've gone for a longer TD, if necessary. And later, starting the second half from their 35, the Raiders in fact burned the Chargers with another long pass.

"You don't throw that interception early in the game, what happens?" he said. "You punt the ball, (and) they don't have great field position."

McCoy called it a poor decision, and said Rivers would say the same.

"Hey, everyone makes mistakes," he said. "Myself as the head coach I've made some mistakes."

McCoy also shed light on the fourth-and-goal handoff from Rivers to Danny Woodhead, who was stopped inside the 1.

The coach didn't mention a missed block by guard Johnnie Troutman, making his second career start. Rivers, he mentioned.

"We had an option whether we were going to throw it or run it," McCoy said. "Looking back, the decision Philip made was to hand the ball off. You look at it and say, 'Hey, if we would've thrown it, it would've been better.' But that's all part of it. Hey, he's going to make a whole lot more good decisions than bad."

Coming into the weekend, Rivers ranked second in the NFL in passer rating.